Fitbit recently released its Flex fitness tracker, a wristband device that combines technology from the company’s other offerings with Bluetooth 4.0 to create a product meant to be worn 24 hours a day. The company seems to be building on the success of its earlier fitness trackers; Fitbit is entering an already hotly-contested space with Flex, going up against the likes of Nike’s FuelBand and Jawbone’s Up.

Fitbit’s new $100 wristband is actually a tracking module, with built-in accelerometer, Bluetooth 4.0 and near-field communications, all packed into a silicon wristband. The band can be purchased separately or in separate or in packs of three, with colors ranging from black to tangerine. Much like the firm’s ONE and ZIP, Flex counts a user’s number of steps, distance traveled, calories burned and minutes of activity. Also carried over from the ONE is a sleep quality tracker, which promises to take stats of how well a user slept during the night.

The interaction with the hardware seems to be quite minimal, with only five white LEDs used as an interface to let users know when they reached their goals for the day. One of the Flex’s main features is claimed real-time tracking via Bluetooth 4.0, which automatically syncs with PCs, Macs, the iPhone 4S and 5, third-generation iPad, iPad mini and iPod Touch. NFC seems to be enabled with Android devices, which allows owners to open the Fitbit app by tapping the Flex and handset together. Battery life is said to be around five to seven days with early reviews from sites such as CNET and TechCrunch seem to back up those claims.

The tracking software is the same feature-rich app that Fitbit users are accustomed to, with goals, social connectivity, trends and support for third-party apps like My Fitness Pal and Run Keeper.

zero hassle claim service five stars on amazon for SQUARE TRADE warranty. yes the factory warranty might be crap. but not square trade. so feel much safer to experiment with using the JAWBONE UP . yes did see the horror stories about the UP being returned and not getting another for weeks, as described on amazon. the new wrist band for FITBIT is so new that its unknown if it will be reliable or useful. why did fitbit not include an altimeter in the wristband? why is there not a simple clock watch display?

Thank goodness I don't care about my health (active enough at work) or I'd end up spending money on stuff like this!

BTW, what's the Bluetooth for? This isn't a phone nor does it store music and I HIGHLY doubt people are going to be syncing this w/ a computer to log their data...

Just curious

The only thing I can see that's applicable to the logging the data is if you have a personal trainer and they need to log your workouts, but that's a very niche market, and it seems they are trying to sell this to the general public which will be tough to do.

I picked one up yesterday and been wearing it since. Pretty cool so far. It keeps track of the steps pretty well and my sleep pattern. The only thing that seems off is it seems between 11pm last night when I went to bed and this morning, I burned 600 calories so not sure how that is calculated since I was sleeping.

I picked one up yesterday and been wearing it since. Pretty cool so far. It keeps track of the steps pretty well and my sleep pattern. The only thing that seems off is it seems between 11pm last night when I went to bed and this morning, I burned 600 calories so not sure how that is calculated since I was sleeping.

up's alarm is so much better -- wakes you up out of light sleep rather than deep sleep. that's been the best feature for me. flex only wakes you at a preset time. if they add that feature, I'll try the flex.

my up (v 2) broke -- the rubber cover came loose (unit still functioned, but the cover started to eat the ends of the band). I emailed jawbone with a couple pics and the sent a new one immediately, no problem).

I think these are Pretty Cool, & much better then the other Fitbit models. It really comes down to the JawBone Up band & the Fit Bit Flex Band. As I said before i think the Flex Band will take off FLYING!!!

I got a Nike fuel band and I would say there is nothing like real time progress on the device itself. Easier to stay motivated. Up lacks blue tooth syncing and you have to take it off and plug it in your headphone jack to sync. Nobody has time for that. What the fue band lacks is the vibrating alarm and the sleep tracker. I am waiting for Apple to release one with all the features!